Monday Sessions

Monday Begins at NOON with a delicious lunch, a welcome from the conference organizers and birds of a feather table discussions.  Please be there as close to noon as possible.

Noon Lunch:

We will have a conversation about the highs and lows of being female and geeky.

1:30-3:00 Session 1

Future of Technology: Melanie Swan, MS Futures Group, Christine Peterson, Foresight Nanotech Institute, Liana Holmberg and Tess Chu, Linden Lab.  Space C

The accelerating pace of technology creation and adoption is impacting every person and organization. There may be another innovation larger than the Internet in our lifetimes. Join this interactive panel and discussion with futurist Melanie Swan, nanotechnology and life extension expert Christine Peterson and Linden Lab / Second Life virtual worlds open source evangelist Liana Holmberg and distributed software engineering group lead Tess Chu as they present a variety of future technologies and their implications. Gain an understanding of what may be coming in virtual worlds, cybersecurity, hardware, software, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, biotechnology and life extension.

Dealing with Analysts The Good the Bad and the Ugly: Charlene Li , Rachel Chalmers, Julie Ask. Space G

The marketing plan for your new company or product is all set and you’re ready for the big debut. But journalists are asking for industry analysts who can talk about the new space you’re creating – who should they call? This session will look at how you can approach and engage analysts. Experienced analysts will share the key ways to get a briefing, and then how to make the most of it. We’ll also look at how and when you should engage analysts to help with your business strategy and product positioning. So bring the questions you’ve always wanted to ask an analysts, but never dared to in a briefing.

The Nonprofit Technology Field and You: Beth Kanter and Marnie Webb  Space D

Want to put your skills and knowledge to work for a cause? And get paid? This session will be an informal discussion about the opportunities and challenges working for nonprofit organizations. We will cover where to network online and offline, where to get job leads and find volunteer opportunities, and we'll answer your questions about what it is really like to work for a nonprofit organization

User Experience Design: Kaari Peterson & Dee Adams  Space A

What it is, why it matters, and how to work with UED on your product or business if you haven’t done this before. 

Do you know how to take advantage of UED and how to engage with designers? Is UED a term that leaves you wondering What do they do? This interactive workshop and discussion with Yahoo! Design Director Kaari Peterson, who worked on Adobe Acrobat, and De Adams, a veritable UED Goddess at Yahoo! will give you real world, useful information on working with designers and present case studies and advice on how design can help you build products and differentiate your business. A must attend if you’re interested in creating any type of application.

Owning Your Power: Susan Mernit and Others  Space B

As women in what are often a male-dominated set of arenas, how can we become more comfortable claiming and using our own power? What are some of the realizations, best practices and strategies to keep women geeks, business people and entrepreneurs grounded, authentic and in control--even when holding your space gets challenging? Susan Mernit and some others will share thoughts and strategies on this topic and facilitate a discussion that will be very relevant to every woman who wants to do a better job at feeling heard.

Susan Mernit leads the product team at Yahoo Personals, is an organizer of She's Geeky, a CE for and advisor to Blogher, and someone who's been involved in building products and businesses on the Net since back in the day--and she's still jazzed about it.

3:30-5:30 Session 2

VCs and Women in Tech:  A Brainstorm with Women VCs and Entrepreneurs - Space G

Session Leaders:
Jodi Sherman Jahic of Voyager Capital
Angela Strange of Bay Partners
Patricia Nakache of Trinity Ventures
Moderator: Mary Hodder, Dabble.com

This session will engage in an open discussion between VCs and women entrepreneurs and those thinking about entrepreneurship. We will start with a short information sharing about what VCs are, how people become VCs, how they make their funds, where they get the money, who they are responsible to, and what they think about in their capacity as VCs.  We'll hear about why VC's do what they do, what they like and dislike, why they think there are few women in the business, and how it affects funding and the kinds of technologies developed.  Next, we'll get to the meat of the problem: addressing what an entrepreneur needs to know about funding when starting a company. And we'll brainstorm with everyone there about how to solve problems, who to go to for information, what elements are needed for a presentation, what gets funded, and how to get a VC over the line to get something funded

Public Speaking Practice (20 people): Lura Dolas  Space D

Why pubic speaking at She's Geeky?  Because we know that there is a dearth of women speakers at events and conferences, and we know that there is a kind of feedback loop between women speaking at an event, showing her expertise and experience, and being asked to work in leadership roles.  Many women fall into technology development, and into positions that might allow them to progress to positions of power, but good speaking skill is critical for this.

Lura is a renowned speaking trainer and acting coach.  She offers a 2 hour session to practice techniques that will help you realize your goals in your career outside and within your workspaces.  She has taught one day workshops at Citizen Space and teaches privately. We are lucky to have such a talented speaking trainer and if you have any interest training, I'd highly recommend that you attend her session.

Online Video / Vlogging: Cheryl Colan, Roxanne Darling, Ryanne Hodson    Space A

Online video allows anyone to create an internet tv channel. Whether your message is personal, professional, political, or just playful, the tools are now accessible and affordable. And though it's easy compared to creating traditional video media, it still requires a bit of geekiness.

We will take you through the pros and cons of adding video blogging to your online presence, and demonstrate a few sample workflows - from "get it up now!" to building a branded internet tv presence for you and/or your business.

Bring your cameras - even most small "still" cameras will take decent video clips these days.

Ceiling Cat Hates Your Porn: Sexual Privacy Online: Violet Blue  Space C

The online world changed human sexuality forever as we know it; what the internet did for sexual privacy, advocacy, understanding and the landscape of pornography is still yet to be understood. At the core of all this is sexual privacy online. Ceiling Cat Hates Your Porn: Sexual Privacy Online discusses the main target groups affected by internet sexual privacy -- everyone, but especially underserved, maligned, misunderstood communities from GLBT to BDSM, women, people needing accurate sex info and urgent nonbiased medical information and beyond.

We'll be looking at example cases of privacy issues, such as the "Craigslist experiment"; 2257 laws for performers, businesses; 2257 laws for social networking sites and their users; porn companies using 2257 against "piracy"; the police officer recently fired for having an adult site. For the porn consumer, sexual privacy online will be described as a case of informed risk and an attempt at harm reduction. "Jane user" will learn what she can do to ensure her sexual privacy online (the user's perspective),, and why it's urgent for them to do so.

SRL geek, SF Chronicle sex columnist and erotic blogger.editor writer Violet Blue will present

Lightening talks (10 people): Danese Cooper  Space E

I'm interested in seeing more women in the Open Source movement.  One of the ways Open Source spreads is through direct advocacy, but many participants are lacking in compelling presentation skills, and its especially rare to see women volunteering to present. Lightning Talks are a way to hone presentations skills while having a bit of fun. Lightning Talks are now a feature of many Open Source conferences worldwide. This tutorial will offer useful and practical information on how to give a compelling talk in under 5 minutes. Tutorial participants will each have an opportunity to give a Lightning Talk and will be given private feedback.  These skills are perfectly transferrable to non-Open Source topics as well.

5:30   Cocktail Hour

6ish   Dinner really great Indian Food

7ish   Evening Entertainment

   Heather Gold, Subvert

8ish   FUN

PPT Kareoke?  Games like Werewolf?

9ish  Closing

 

Tuesday

 

8am  breakfast

8:30 opening circle